The Library Song

Bill Roper and Gretchen Van Dorn (Roper)

Library Song
(for Frank and Carl B.)

Lyrics copyright © Gretchen Roper
Music copyright © Bill Roper
All rights reserved
Lyrics posted by permission of the author

When I was a child. I'd say just turned six.
And first numbered reading among my few tricks
My father Presented a treasure to me.
A buff piece of paper, two inches by three.
He called it a passport to worlds new and far.
And thus, I acquired my Library card.

With Flyball I flew and with Frodo I traveled.
Phileas Fogg and I sailed a balloon.
With Christopher Robin I've been up the hillside.
With Christopher Godfrey I've been to the moon.

A plain red-brick building that once housed a store,
Oak tables, grey shelving, but oh, so much more.
Grand castles, deep oceans, strange cities, far stars.
Great journeys, great triumphs, and terrible wars.
Munchkins and Martians and mermaids and mice
The creatures of fiction were my teachers of life.

Kip, Peewee and I learned the value of teamwork.
A run-away robot proved learning was fun.
Meg Murray and I learned of love and believing.
Believe that you're winning, the game is half won.

So now I'm an adult. My dull grown-up head
Finds colors and flavors in the real world instead.
I come back to my old books each now and again
To see the old places and visit old friends.
I can deal with this world with its crises and cranks,
But I still want to stop by, wave hi and say thanks.

Dorothy and I'll find that we're not in Kansas.
With Alice I'll walk through the looking-glass wall.
Sometimes I go back there. I still find a welcome.
Perhaps I'm not all that grown-up after all.